In Escanaba, the local theater group Players de Noc honored the SS Edmund Fitzgerald and lost sailors with a stage read of “Ten November,” a piece produced in 1987 for the Actors Theatre of St. Paul by author Steven Dietz and songwriter Eric Peltoniemi.

As the anniversary of the ship’s sinking approached and ceremonies were organized elsewhere — a memorial service took place at Old Mariners’ Church in Detroit on Sunday; families of the Fitzgerald’s victims were invited to a special ceremony at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in Chippewa County on Monday — the local community wanted to pay homage, too. Director Jeff Woerpel submitted Dietz’s “Ten November” script to Players de Noc for consideration and it was, of course, accepted.

Though the initial plan was to have only one production on the anniversary itself, Players added a second night, and actors and audiences came together for sold-out shows on both Sunday and Monday. It went “better than imagined,” Woerpel said.

The show opened with a short pre-recorded video that included clips of Woerpel standing aboard the Cason J. Callaway, the freighter currently docked at North Shore Marine, which provided a sense of scale as the director encouraged the audience to fathom the conditions it would take to sink such a ship.

Director Jeff Woerpel stands next to a bell used during Players de Noc's stage read of "Ten November." Toward the end of the performance, the bell was run 30 times, once for each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald as it sank, and another for all sailors lost. (Photo by Michael Hall, courtesy of Players de Noc)

While the storm and singular shipwreck of Nov. 10, 1975, was nowhere near the most deadly on the lakes — for instance, there was the horrific gale in 1913 that claimed more than 250 lives and a dozen ships, plus stranded many more — there are a few reasons the sinking of the Fitzgerald has become so infamous.

For one, Gordon Lightfoot’s immortalizing, haunting song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” brought the tale to reaches of the world where people didn’t even know lakes could sink boats. For another, it was one of a handful of modern maritime disasters that many believe could have been prevented. Intrigue continues to surround the case as debates swirl about what truly caused its demise; there were several dangerous factors, but no survivors to tell precisely why it went down after that last transmission from Capt. Ernest McSorley: “We are holding our own.”

The tragedy of the Edmund Fitzgerald, especially in the way “Ten November” tells it, is not just about what happened to one ship. In a script created using transcripts of radio transmissions between vessels, lamentations of widows, investigations and more, the stage performance relays to audiences that the fatal final journeys of the Fitz and other ships, like the Daniel J. Morrell, seem to carry a larger tale — one woven with themes of company greed and negligence, the awesome and awful power of nature and the hubris of man.

Though the show was mostly solemn, comic relief punctuated the performance occasionally — there was a humorous quip or two from a widow speckled into mournful monologues, a sailor who talked about falling into the pool as a young boy and conspiracy theorists who believed the missing men were abducted by aliens.

Consensus leaving Bay College’s Besse Theater after the show was the stage read was enjoyable and emotional. A few people said they were not quite sure what to expect from it beforehand. The format of the docudrama’s script, peppered with a few musical numbers, was unusual, surprising, but worked.

Players de Noc during a rehearsal of the stage read of "Ten November." (Photo courtesy of Jesse Traub)

“Many people came forward and added their talents,” Woerpel said. “Actors; singers; musicians; videographer; photo projections; sound; lights; theater tech; stage managers; our patrons; Bay College for providing a venue; North Shore Marine and Great Lakes Fleet Inc. for allowing us to tour the Cason J. Callaway docked at North Shore Marine, allowing us to inform the show with what it means for a ship the size of the Edmund Fitzgerald to go down.

“It has been an emotional and educational journey for me as a director,” he added. “Not one I will ever forget.”

Players de Noc has been using the Besse Theater since their equipment and longtime home in the William Bonifas Fine Arts Center theater have not yet been restored after the fire in May. The public can help toward recovery goals and find out about future performances and other events at playersdenoc.org.

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R. R. Branstrom can be reached at 906-786-2021, ext. 140, or rbranstrom@dailypress.net.